Calgary Police are now in Mexico to probe disappearance of Nathan O’Brien and his grandparents

Three weeks after a suspect was arrested and charged with three counts of murder in relation to a missing five-year-old Calgary boy and his grandparents, police have confirmed investigators from Calgary are in Mexico in relation to the homicide investigation.

Despite not locating their bodies, police believe five-year-old Nathan O’Brien and his grandparents, Alvin and Kathryn Liknes, were murdered.

On July 15, Douglas Robert Garland, 54, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder following the trio’s disappearance. On Tuesday, a police spokesperson confirmed investigators are in Mexico in connection to the investigation but would not elaborate further.

Nathan and his grandparents went missing from the Liknes home in the southwest neighbourhood of Parkhill sometime between the evening of June 29 and the next morning.

On the weekend they went missing, Alvin, 66, and Kathryn, 53, had hosted a three-day estate sale at their home.

The couple were selling off most of their possessions in preparation for a long-planned move to Mexico. Friends and family said the couple had plans to live in Mexico before returning to Canada and settling in Edmonton.

Following Garland’s arrest, police said investigators had a 30-day plan derived from intelligence and evidence gathered during their homicide probe.

“We are systematically searching locations that have a high likelihood of locating evidence, utilizing officers from the CPS, RCMP and provincially sanctioned civilian search organizations,” police said in a written statement nearly three weeks ago.